The International Day for Biodiversity (IBD) 2018 was celebrated all over the country today. The celebration of the IDB under the theme - “Celebrating 25 years of action on biodiversity” provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of and threats to biodiversity, while highlighting its contribution to sustainable development.

An estimated 10 million people in nine districts of West Bengal drink arsenic-laden groundwater. Priyanka Pulla finds that despite alarms having been sounded over decades, the State government has moved at a glacial pace to tackle the crisis, while people struggle to cope with the symptoms

In the build up to the World Environment Day on June 5, the government has formed 19 teams which will undertake cleaning of 24 beaches and an equal number of polluted riverfronts and lakes across India.
India is the global host of this year's World Environment Day Celebrations, the largest UN-led celebration on environment, and the theme for this edition is 'Beat Plastic Pollution'.
The Environment Ministry said that cleaning up of around 24 beaches in nine coastal states and riverfronts in 24 identified polluted stretches in 19 states will be undertaken by the teams. A special cleanliness drive will be carried out at Yamuna riverfront in Delhi while certain lakes and water bodies have also been identified for cleaning.
The 19 teams will include senior officers of the ministry, state nodal agencies in-charge of eco-clubs of schools, State Pollution Control Boards, district administration, college of fisheries located along the coastal stretches and other educational and research ...

During times of drought, herder Buchu Boru has to walk tens of kilometres in search of pasture for his animals - with no guarantee he will find it.
"Somebody tells you by word of mouth that there is pasture but on arriving you don't (find) any," said the 60-year-old, who has had to walk from his home all the way across the Ethiopian border to find grass some years.
But next time the rains fail - an increasingly common problem in northern Kenya - he hopes a new mobile phone app will help him move his livestock to fodder without too much cost or waste of time.
The Afriscout app, which uses satellite images to identify where there is grass and surface water, "is better than what we are used to", he said.
As climate change brings longer droughts and more unpredictable rainfall, herders often need to travel further and to less-well-known areas to find grass and water for their animals.
Technology that reduces the uncertainties associated with the journeys can help protect herds and incomes, making families ...

​​The mercury is climbing. These are the dog days of summer. Delhi is again facing acute water shortages — one of the biggest challenges it has been grappling with for decades. The worst-hit areas have been its pockets in the Southwest (rocky terrain), North floodplains (parched) and Northwest.
In such times, the Yamuna is always in focus. And it’s natural to some extent, because the river, despite being nothing better than a sewage canal at some places, meets about 70 per cent of Delhi’s water needs. And this is where the main problem has always been.
For, till about a century ago, the city did not depend directly on the Yamuna to meet its water needs. It was more for recreation, rituals, cargo transportation, and a source of livelihood for farmers, fishers, mallahs, washermen, pujaris and swimmers​/divers​.
Historian-filmmaker Sohail Hashmi says the river water was probably not potable in Delhi even before it began to be choked with sewage and industrial waste.
“It had mica seams embedded in the ...

Volunteers from a citizen activist group, Million Voter Rising interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. Below is the transcript of the interview with Indian National Congress candidate A C Srinivas: »

Volunteers from a citizen activist group, Million Voter Rising interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. Below is the transcript of the interview with Swaraj Party candidate Ramesh Chander: Your profile »

Volunteers from Million Voter Rising, the citizen group from Mahadevapura, interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. This is the transcript of the interview with the incumbent MLA from Bharatiya Janata Party, »

Volunteers from Million Voter Rising, the citizen group from Mahadevapura, interviewed candidates contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections from Mahadevapura constituency. This is the transcript of the interview with the incumbent MLA from Bharatiya Janata Party, »

Chinese President Xi Jinping has likened a microchip to the human heart, saying "no matter how big a person is, he or she can never be strong without a sound and strong heart".
Urging Chinese businesses to make major breakthroughs in chip technology, Xi, who hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in the central Chinese city for an unprecedented two-day informal summit, said they should achieve new heights in global semiconductor industry.
On Thursday, ahead of his one-on-one meetings with Modi, Xi, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspected two leading chipmakers in a high-tech development zone in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province.
The area, dubbed "China's Optics Valley," is the world's largest R&D and manufacturing base for optical communication equipment.
Xi first visited FiberHome Technologies Group, which leads the world in R&D and production of optical communication equipment of